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Do Doctors Discriminate?

Short answer: Yes. Obviously not all of them but some of them and in my opinion that’s enough.

Long answer comes from Juliann Garey who wrote an article which you can read here and here.

Juliann Garey writes that she once went to the emergency room with an ear infection that “was causing a level of pain I hadn’t experienced since giving birth” and one look at the list of medications she was taking for her bipolar disorder from her doctor,” “I don’t feel comfortable prescribing anything,” he said. “Not with everything else you’re on.” He said it was probably safe to take Tylenol and politely but firmly indicated it was time for me to go. The next day my eardrum ruptured and I was left with minor but permanent hearing loss.”

“Another time I was lying on the examining table when a gastroenterologist I was seeing for the first time looked at my list of drugs and shook her finger in my face. “You better get yourself together psychologically,” she said, “or your stomach is never going to get any better.””

Garey states that you can go through your whole life with people not knowing but once you reveal it “It wipes clean the rest of my résumé, my education, my accomplishments, reduces me to a diagnosis” and it’s the same with doctors.

You might be doubting me on how common it is and brushing it off as a one time thing but “At least 14 studies have shown that patients with a serious mental illness receive worse medical care than “normal” people. Last year the World Health Organization called the stigma and discrimination endured by people with mental health conditions “a hidden human rights emergency.” “

“That is a problem, because if you are given a diagnosis of a serious psychiatric disorder you probably also suffer from one or more chronic physical conditions: though no one quite knows why, migraines, irritable bowel syndrome and mitral valve prolapse often go hand in hand with bipolar disorder.”

Given this it should be much of a surprise to learn that in the ” “Morbidity and Mortality in People with Serious Mental Illness,” a review of studies published in 2006 that provides an overview of recommendations and general call to arms by the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors. The take-away: people who suffer from a serious mental illness and use the public health care system die 25 years earlier than those without one. “

So yes they discriminate and we are the poor people who suffer, read the articles for more indepth.